• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, October 1, 2025

I was recently asked to put together a presentation on how start-up companies could use marketing communications successfully. Thinking this through, I realized there’s really no secret to it. A successful communications strategy rests on three simple things: creativity, persistence and relationships.

When most marketers think about communications, they think about two things: content marketing and public relations (PR).  Those are the two foundations for marcom. 

What’s interesting is that most marketers will think about the process for both, while I believe the process is secondary to the creativity and persistence needed, and the relationships you build to properly activate. 

If you are executing content marketing and PR, you need to be creative.  Creativity goes beyond simply broadcasting a product roadmap or a series of pieces that speak to your category, your product and its benefits.  You need to come up with new and interesting ways to grab the attention of your audience, whether consumers or business buyers.  Being creative means you may never speak about your product, but instead focus on a broader set of interests your audience has.

Persistence enters into the picture when you have established a creative approach that resonates with your audience, and you are willing to maintain the message regardless of what is happening in the broader category around you.  You have to commit to seeing it through. That means crafting more content, engaging with more journalists and influencers, and continuing to evangelize the idea to anyone who’ll listen, through writing, webinars, speaking and more.  It’s not all about press releases that get sent out on the wire. Although these are one of the arrows in your quiver, you need more than press releases.

It's relationships that really matter the most, though.  You want to get to know the people in the industry in the same way you hope they will get to know you.  You should never fully outsource PR because these are real people, and people who love the business you work in, so you should get to know them. 

No measure of AI can ever establish and build a relationship like person-to-person engagement.  A real person on the other end of a handshake or a Zoom or phone call can help you grow your business more than any article ever will.  Real people help your business to grow and expand.

It helps when you work in an industry filled with great people, like this one is.  Maybe my advice doesn’t apply to every category, but I know that in advertising and media, it’s the best advice I can give.